As a prominent Pakistani journalist Kamal Ahmed recently wrote: "In Sudan and Somalia, Muslims are killing Muslims. In Afghanistan, Muslims killed Muslims in the civil war before the world moved in with daisy-cutters with a UN legal cover. In Pakistan, Muslims kill Muslims then blame it on India. ... Muslims have learnt to kill in many ways. When convenient, they blame it on America."

Muslim extremists are not only trying to bomb London and New York, they are also killing fellow Muslims in their own countries. The sad thing is that very few moderate Muslims have spoken out against such slaughter of fellow Shia Muslims in Iraq.

Muslims should realise that extremists among them are responsible for their present predicament. These extremists are to be blamed for the failure of Britain's multi-culturalism. US President George W. Bush might have bungled in Iraq. But the slaughter of Iraq's Shiite majority had been going on long before the American invasion. During Saddam Hussein's reign of terror, the minority Sunnis ruled by brutalising the Shiite majority. Now the Sunnis have lost their grip on power. But the slaughter of the Shiites goes on unabated. Unless Sunnis and Shias stop hating each other, the American withdrawal will not change anything. In fact, the American withdrawal at this stage might trigger a wider Shia-Sunni war involving other countries. Just look at Pakistan which has been blighted for long by attacks blamed on extremist elements among Shia and Sunni sects, targeting each other's mosques and religious leaders. The attacks often lead to rioting. No American troops are there to fight the local insurgents.

Let's put the blame on the extremists for the present predicament in Iraq. Let's call a spade a spade.